Departed Days
by Otterberries
Summary: Thirty years have passed since the halt of the disastrous war amongst the four kingdoms of Hetalia, leaving a fragile peace in its costly wake. Can the ruse of a single Artistic shatter the already departing tranquility and continue what started the previous generation? History tends to repeat itself and Strongs hate being fooled. Royal AU / Prumano


Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia, no suing please.  
Warnings: Language, violence, (minor) character death and mentions of it  
AN: This is not a Cardverse AU nor does it contain anything from it. (As far as I know... the amount I know about the Cardverse Universe is 0) There are other pairings in the story, implied and stated, but you will have to discover these yourself. Expect non-continuous updating, but I will try to keep spans less than a month. You might see an update in a week or in four weeks, it all depends on life issues and laze levels. Currently set at a T rating, but that is subject to change. Alaric Beilschmidt is Germania and Romulus Vargas is Ancient Rome.

Translations:  
_German:  
_Deutschland - Germany  
_Italian:  
_Italia - Italy  
_French:  
_Château - Castle

.:0 . Prologue . 0 :.

_In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes  
_~ John Ruskin

Outside the window laid a horizon completely void of light except for the brave few stars willing to shine without their peers. Like the hiding moon, a fair-haired boy, experiencing his own form of darkness, curled upon himself beneath a maroon blanket with a golden ring design, only his eyes peeking above the fibers. Continuously, his attentive eyes darted from the hard-wood door on the far side of his room to the adjacent wall where the ajar closet beckoned.

An evil space with something crawling within its shadows.

Despite his pride against calling his older brother for help, his waning won out. "L-Lukas!"

Almost immediately, like the other was waiting for the call, another blonde broke open the door as if death was clinging to his heels. "Emil?" Lukas moved toward the bedside in four quick strides, removed the covering blanket from Emil's face, exposing his slightly quivering lip, and sat down on the bed, leaving Emil to face towards his brother slightly due to the uneven weight distribution. "What is wrong?" Lukas' face might have been passive, but his blue eyes did all the emotional work needed.

Emil wanted to tell Lukas nothing was wrong. He was not a fifteen year old still scared of the dark. But that tentacle behind the closet door once again waved and his desire to be independent shattered. Pointing at the closet with the swirling silhouettes, Emil did not have to say any more.

Instead of heading to the closet, Lukas strode to the other door in the room and flipped on the light switch, allowing the moderness to flood the area with good sight. Then, he shuffled to the closet and fully displayed it's clean, innocent insides of basic clothes and a plastic toy castle to Emil. "There are no monsters Emil, those only come from legends and mythology."

Feeling silly and stupid, Emil hung his head to avoid giving his brother a further reason to believe he is nothing but a scared baby.

Lukas sighed, he didn't believe that Emil was childish and hasn't since the boy turned ten and started separating himself from Lukas for a streak of independence. But once Emil woke up; he stayed up. The clock at the bedside said it was 5:30 am and Emil had a bus to catch for school in little over an hour.

No use trying to lay there awake in bed, continuing to believe the delusion that sleep will come if one stays still enough.

To waste time, Lukas decided to give Emil a treat: a story he made up, on the spot, with inspiration from the old texts he translates for work. Taking his earlier spot beside Emil, who was still hanging his head, Lukas began.

" In the days now long departed-"

"This isn't going to be about a troll again, is it?" Emil interrupted, looking up and getting comfortable for the anticipated, long story.

"No. Now shut up and listen. In the days now long departed, from a vast land called Hetalia, there breathed four kingdoms. To the East boomed the mild France, a flexible breeding ground of a variety of things from new forms of art to different styles of cuisine to calm-headed citizens. Across the land in the West was the near-island of the proud England, a rainy place of great literature and science with inhabitants that beat to their own drums. To the North was the strong Deutschland, a land with many forests and cold winters that hardened it's citizens hellbent on defending the homeland. And lastly, in the South, stood the artistic Italia, their friendly chefs, sculptors, and violinists warming up the climate amongst the mountainous peninsula.

"All Four Kingdoms are old; the generations of nomadic traders having seen their boarders change hands, their leaders wither and pass, petty their names change... but the one thing that has not been seen was war. Petty disputes, but no decelerations.

"There are many speculations as to how the different members of the kingdoms avoided slaughtering one another out of misguided self-defense, more resources, or revenge. Perhaps they were wise enough to understand that having a fourth of the world hate you is not beneficial to growth. Or maybe they were afraid to go down in history as the one to begin chaos. Whether it was the fear of social ostracism or the merits of avoiding costs, there was no formal peace treaty between the four nations.

"However, the expected serenity ended in only three short months.

"Since it is separated by a channel, the rallying Prouds of England were not seen nor anticipated. Deutschland might have thought it was fishy how English travelers over it's lands increased, but the tolls they placed brought in too much revenue to think into it. And France should have gathered it's citizen soldiers once the white and red banners charged the plains outside Paris.

"England officially declared war on France the day before the Tricolor banners of the Château de Gaul were burned.

"In less than two weeks, France dusted off its standby army for protection, but France was not a land of violence, preferring the sweet warmth of love instead of the warmth from blood. So France turned to its Northern neighbor for support.

Due to having a large border, Deutschland felt a connection to France. But that might have been the vast amount of trading for rare goods between the two speaking and England made one grave mistake in passing their troops through Deutschland. They duped a Strong. Thousands of Strongs who wanted revenge for their home front being breached by the ill intentions of others.

"Deutschland allied with France against England and three fourths of the world was at war.

"Not wanting to loose, England turned to the sole nation left who watched the chaos with apprehension, Italia. While they are not known for brutality of any kind except for minor street gangs in the South, some type of ally is better than none. England, in exchange for the help from Italia, promised that once the war was won they could have the thin, currently French owned and heavily-tolled, strip of land between Italia and Deutschland.

"With the prospect of easier trade and a little more land, Italia allied with England and the War of Four began and lasted for nine years.

"In all four kingdoms there was heavy land damages and loss of life, especially in France at the beginning and, later, in England after the war-hero and French queen Jeanne d'Arc was burned to death on English soil which angered the Milds to no end. The kings of both Deutschland, King Alaric Beilschmidt, and of Italia, King Romulus Vargas, left lasting wounds on the other.

"Hetalia was never the same and the only reasons the fighting ended was because each kingdom could no longer fund their section of the war and, after the blood-haze that settles at the dawn of any battle faded, city-wide strikes for a stop rang. Neither kingdom won in the end. Italia didn't get their promised strip of land as it was actually thickened in France's favor from Italian countryside. Deutschland lost a little land and security to England. France's countryside and large cities were ravaged to cinders in many places. England became untrustable and was forced to pay half it's war damages.

"At the next annual grand meeting between the four kingdoms, England finally gave its reason for attacking France. A political scandal. As silly and pointless as starting a world war because a few French aristocrats cheaped out England, Englishmen are not called Prouds for nothing.

"But this was just the prologue, Emil, our actual story starts thirty years after the flames died and the swords were sheathed."

.:^:.

Everything is kind of vague right now, but that is the point. What fun is reading something when you know exactly what happens? ;D

I have yet to decide if I want the plotline of this story to be macro (many different characters) or micro (mostly just between Lovino and Gilbert)... or somewhere in-between. What are your opinions?


End file.
